Current location in this text. Enter a Perseus citation to go to another section or work. Full search
options are on the right side and top of the page.

SACRA VIA

the oldest and most famous street in Rome. It and the Nova
via were the only streets in the city called viae before the imperial period,
when we hear of a VIA FORNICATA, VIA TECTA and VIA NOVA (qq. v.).
Sacra via (ἡἱερὰὁδός) was the correct and well-nigh universal form of
the name, and the reverse order, via Sacra, occurs, outside of poetry
(e.g. Hor. Sat. i. 9. 1), with extreme infrequency (Plin. NH xix. 23;
Not. Reg. IV; Suet. Vit. 17; Ascon. Cic. pro Mil. 141; CIL vi. 9239,
9418, 9549). Further evidence for this is found in the word sacravienses
(Fest. 178), and in the protest raised by the grammarians against the
common practice of pronouncing the name as if it were a compound
(Fest. 290: nec ... appellaridebereaitVerriusseddisiuncte, utcaeterasviasFlaminiamAppiamLatinam, utneNovamviamquidem, sedNovamviam).

The course and level (AJA 1923, 390 sqq.) of the Sacra via varied
somewhat at different times. As it was the principal means of communication between the Palatine and the forum (Plut. Cic. 22; Tac.
Hist. iii. 68; Cass. Dio lxiv. 20; lxxvii. 4), it probably began on the
summit of the Velia, near the porta Mugonia and the temple of Jupiter
Stator, and ran in a fairly straight line to the regia and temple of Vesta,
but just at what point it approached them is not certain. After
the building of the fornix Fabianus in 121 B.C. the street passed
through it.

We have but scanty remains of the Sacra via of the period of Sulla.
A street (which is perhaps the vicus Vestae) which diverged from it at
the fornix has been found under the temple of Julius Caesar and
the arch of Augustus, the pavement of which lies at 11.90 metres above
sea-level (JRS 1922, 12-14); and a few blocks exist of its pavement
below the steps at the north-east corner of the temple of Julius at 12.50
metres above sea-level. At the 'temple of Romulus' it lay at about
14 metres and at the divergence of the clivus Palatinus at about 27 metres
(AJA 1923, 397-8). For the remains of structures attributable to this
period (and to earlier times) along this portion of its course, mainly
shops and wells, see TF 87, 88.

After the rebuilding of the regia in 36 B.C. and the building of the
temple of Divus Iulius a few years later, it passed to the north of these
structures, and then bent to the left to the temple of Castor (Mart. i. 70. 3-4:
vicinumCastoracanaetransibisVestaevirgineamquedomum). For
the early empire the line is definitely established by the discovery of the
Augustan pavement (Ills. 10, 45, 46), 5 metres wide, for a considerable part
of this distance, which shows that the street curved to the north just east
of the very top of the Velia, which it left very near the present arch of
Titus. It falls from a level of 28.30 metres above sea-level at a point
7 metres east of the arch of Titus to 12.60 metres at the north-east
corner of the temple of Julius. Some of this pavement has been found
under the steps of the temple of Venus and Roma (AJA 1923, 399 sqq.-
and also for what follows).

Opposite the middle of the basilica of Constantine this Augustan
pavement is crossed by the massive concrete foundations of a series
of arcades of the time of Nero (AJA 1923, 403 sqq.). These foundations
run in parallel lines, first south-east and then, turning at right angles,
south-west. This shows that Nero changed the line of the Sacra via,
in connection with the building of the DOMUS AUREA (q.v.), and made
it run between this portico and the one opposite it up to the vestibule
and then around the north-west corner of that building with a sharp
turn. On the north side of the Augustan pavement are the foundations
and walls of later private houses and buildings, which were destroyed
by the erection of arcades on this side also. The level at the east end
of the forum remained as before. At the temple of Romulus it was
about 16.70 metres above sea-level, in front of the basilica of Constantine
22.50 to 23.10, and at its junction with the clivus Palatinus about 27.60
metres. When Hadrian built the temple of Venus and Roma, some
further alterations in the street in front of it must have been made,
and thereafter the Sacra via from the Velia downwards to the regia
appears to have been an avenue, about 30 metres wide, flanked on both
sides by porticoes and shops, those on the north being finally destroyed
by the erection of the basilica of Constantine. It was this avenue that
was represented by the pavement, 23 metres wide including the side walks,
which was removed in 18992 (LR 190; BC 1900, 11; Atti 516; Mem.
Am. Acad. v. 115-126; see Ill. 7).

After the erection of the arch of Titus, the street passed through it
and continued eastward in a straight line to the Meta Sudans, between
the temple of Venus and Roma and the temple of Jupiter Stator and
the buildings on the slope of the Palatine. The Nova via joined the
Sacra via near the arch of Titus, and at about the same point the so-called
clivus Palatinus branched off the south and ascended the Palatine at
the porta Mugonia.

The Sacra via was also a residential quarter in regal and republican
times (Gilb. iii. 360), and those who dwelt here were called sacravienses
(Fest. 178). According to tradition, Numa, Ancus Martius and Tarquinius
Superbus lived here (Solin. i. 21-23; Plin. NH xxxiv. 29), and Tullus Hostilius on the Velia (Cic. de rep. ii. 53). The houses of the VALERII
(q.v.) (Liv. ii. 7) and of Cn. Domitius Calvinus (Fest. 154) were in
summa Velia; and on the Sacra via itself were those of P. Scipio Nasica
(Pomp. Dig. i. 2. 2. 37), Tettius Damio (Cic. ad Att. iv. 3. 3), of the
Octavii (Sall. Hist. frg. ii. 45) and of the Domitii (CIL vi. 2041, 25;
2042 d, 32352). Many remains of these houses of the republican
period have been found (Mitt. 1902, 94-95; 1905, 118) on the south
side of the street in front of the atrium Vestae and farther east,
especially in the angle formed by the Nova via and clivus Palatinus.
Some of the ruins here are as late as the time of Augustus (BPW 1905,
428).

Like all the first streets in great cities, the Sacra via became in process
of time largely a street of shops (Ov. Ars Am. ii. 265-266; Amor. i. 8. 100;
Prop. ii. 24. 14-15; Richter, 163-164). At the beginning of the empire
it is probable that these shops stood on both sides of the way, from the
entrance to the forum to the Velia, but in consequence of the great changes
wrought by the erection of the forum Pacis, the templum Sacrae Urbis
and the temple of Faustina, they were gradually restricted for the most
part to the south side of the street between the atrium Vestae and the
arch of Titus. Many inscriptions have been found relating to the tradesmen of the Sacra via, especially jewellers of all sorts (CIL vi. 9207, 9221,
9239, 9418, 9419, 9545-9549), and those who dealt in flowers, fruit and
luxuries (vi. 9283, 9795, 9935).

Going eastward from the exit of the Sacra via from the forum area
between the temple of divus Iulius and the porticus Gai et Luci (AJA
1913, 14-28), the street passes on the north the temple of Faustina
(141 A.D.), the archaic necropolis, the remains of private houses (HC
230-231; Mitt. 1902, 94; 1905, 116; Atti 570-574), the Heroon
Romuli, and the basilica of Constantine; on the south the regia, the
remains of houses and shops between the street and the atrium Vestae,
and the great porticus (see above).

2 Even if the actual paving-stones could be shown to have been laid in the Middle Ages,
it would of course prove nothing against the road having originated in classical times: but
it was only by its removal that the excavation of the Augustan pavement was rendered
possible. Its level was at least 2 metres above the Sacra via of Nero.